Individual

Description

Michelle Kwa

A citizen of the world, minimalist who enjoys beautiful little things that nature and people offers. Environmental engineering and sustainable development by education who is I'm currently working with ISIS and engaging in various green and sustainable initiatives in the urban periphery.

I enjoy learning, traveling, gardening, reading and talking bout philosophy, WWOOFing, building natural homes, hitch hiking, dumpster-diving and have lived in Germany, China, Namibia, Netherlands for work and travels for the past seven years.more...

No Sham(e)poo but Hair Soda Instead?

Have you ever wondered what your personal daily cleaning products such as shampoo, skincare, soap, make-up products are made from?

Yes. Palm oil. Chemicals derived from palm oil and palm kernel oil.

Do you know palm oil has become one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in Southeast Asia over the past 20 years?

According to a study published by Greenpeace in February 2014, some 3.5 million hectares equivalent to 8.7 million football field of forests were cleared in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea between 1990 and 2010. Can you imagine the price of all other precious flora and fauna that had wiped away along the forest destruction?

The ecological footprint by consuming such products is largely reflected through the resulted manufactured landscape of such clearings and plantation. As guilty as charged, we are indirectly funding the deforestation of unsustainable practices of companies such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever in their supply chains.

My journey of minimalism for the past few years have nurtured my practices in conscious consumerism, both striving towards socially and ecological conscious consumption. Along its altruism motive, I’ve been weeding out unnecessary chemicals in my life and most importantly saving some bucks from excessive products. Among some contaminants primary found in personal care products include in the form of synthetic fragrance (dioxine), sodium laurel sulfate, and parabens which are linked to asthma, cancer and other health problems.

One of my most successful experiment to get rid of such nuance is my attempt to a make my own hair soda! Yes! !

It’s guilt-free and most importantly greasy-free!

It’s easy and cheap, it smells good and it leaves you a healthier and shinier hair!I kid you not.

So what is hair soda?

As simple as 1-2-3?

Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate
This ingredient is available cheaply and famously known for its multi-purposes. The fact that it can be consumed orally shows that it does not pose any threat to our health. Not to mention it has over 50 usages for personal care, cleaning and deodorizing.

H20

Natural Essential Oil (optional) of your choice. My pick is rose.

These three ingredients are best mixed in a 100 ml bottle to keep its freshness.

First fill ¾ of the bottle with baking soda and then water. Place 2-3 droplets of essential oil accordingly. Lastly, give it a good shake!

And there you go, apply hair soda as your shampoo, rub it in thoroughly as it does not lather into bubbles. Rise it with water. This hair soda does not only clean your hair like sham(e)poo did, it doesn’t strip the oils completely from your hair thereby no conditioner is required.

By simply making our little d-i-y experiments, it does not only enhance our creativity but also truly strengthening our capability in problem-solving thereby dealing with trade-offs in our daily informed decisions.

Welcome to MESYM!Connecting the green dots

MESYM.com is a crowd-sourced platform and a living database for environmental movements in Malaysia. There are many good actions being done out there. Our goal is to bring them together. We connect the green dots.